INTERNECINE STRIFE The Lombard League.—Meanwhile the election of Alex ander III. to the papacy in 1159 added a powerful ally to the republican party. Opposed by an anti-pope whom the emperor favoured, Alexander relied for support upon the anti-imperialist communes. They in return gladly accepted a champion who lent them the prestige and influence of the church. When Frederick once more crossed the Alps in 1166, he advanced on Rome but was again forced to depart. In April 1167 a new league was formed between Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua and Fer rara. In December of the same year this league allied itself with the elder Veronese league, and received the addition of Milan, Lodi, Piacenza, Parma, Modena and Bologna. The famous league of Lombard cities was now established. Novara, Vercelli, Asti and Tortona swelled its ranks; only Pavia and the Montferrat re mained imperialist between the Alps and Apennines. Frederick fled for his life by the Mont Cenis, and in 1168 the town of Alessandria was erected to keep Pavia and the marquisate in check. In the emperor's absence, Ravenna, Rimini, Imola and Forli joined the league, which now called itself the "Society of Venice, Lombardy, the March, Romagna and Alessandria." For the fifth time, in '174, Frederick entered his rebellious dominions. The fortress town of Alessandria stopped his progress with those mud walls contemptuously named "of straw," while the forces of the league assembled at Modena and obliged him to raise the siege. In the spring of 1176 Frederick threatened Milan. His army was near Legnano, when the troops of the city, assisted only by a few allies from Piacenza, Verona, Brescia, Novara and Vercelli, met and overwhelmed it. The victory was complete. Frederick es caped alone and opened negotiations with Alexander in Venice. Here a truce for six years was concluded with the Lombard corn munes. But although they had humbled and utterly defeated their foreign lord, and proved their strength in combination, all that they claimed was municipal autonomy; the right to manage their own affairs within the city walls, to fight their battles as they chose, and to follow their several ends unchecked. There was as yet no trace of an Italian national spirit.
When the truce expired in 1183, a permanent peace was ratified at Constance. The signatories of the peace of Constance were divided between leaguers and imperialists. On the one side we find Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Lodi, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Treviso, Bologna, Faenza, Modena, Reg gio, Parma, Piacenza; on the other, Pavia, Genoa, Alba, Cremona, Como, Tortona, Asti, Alessandria. Venice, who had not yet en tered the Italian community, is conspicuous by her absence. Ac cording to the terms of this treaty, the communes were con firmed in their right of self-government by consuls, and their right of warfare. The emperor retained the supreme courts of appeal wjthin the cities, and his claim for sustenance at their expense when he came into Italy.
The privileges confirmed to the Lombard cities by the peace of Constance were extended to Tuscany, where Florence had begun her career of freedom and prosperity. The next great chapter in the history of Italian evolution is the war of the cities against the nobles. The city communes were everywhere surrounded by cas tles; and, though the feudal lords had been weakened by the events of the preceding centuries, they continued to be formidable ene mies. But, partly by mortgaging their property to rich burghers, partly by entering the service of the cities as condottieri (mercen ary leaders), partly by espousing the cause of one town against another, and partly by forced submission after the siege of their strongholds, the nobles were gradually brought into connection of dependence on the communes. These, in their turn, forced the nobles to leave their castles, and to reside within the walls. By these measures the counts became citizens, the rural population ceased to rank as serfs, and the Italo-Roman population of the towns absorbed into itself the remnants of Franks, Germans and other foreign stocks. But while it would be impossible to exagger ate the importance of this revolution, which ended by destroying the last vestige of feudalism and was a decided step forward, it in troduced a new source of discord. The nobles fortified their houses, retained their military habits, and carried on feuds in the streets and squares. The war against the castles became a war against the palaces; and the system of government by consuls proved in efficient to control these clashing elements. This led to the estab lishment of podestas, whose business it was to arbitrate and keep the peace. Invariably a foreigner, elected for a year with power of life and death and control of the armed force, but subject to a strict account at the expiration of his office, the podesta might be compared to a dictator invested with limited authority. The citizens chose him, and voluntarily submitted to his rule.
Frederick II.—Barbarossa, perceiving the advantage that would accrue to his house if he could join the crown of Sicily to that of Germany, procured the marriage of his son Henry VI. to
Constance, daughter of King Roger, and heiress of the Hauteville dynasty. When William H., the last monarch of the Norman race, died, Henry VI. claimed that kingdom in his wife's right, and was recognized in 1194. Three years afterwards he died, leaving a son, Frederick, to the care of Constance, who in her turn died in 1198, bequeathing the young prince, already crowned king of Ger many, to the guardianship of Innocent III. The pope honourably discharged his duty, until his ward outgrew the years of tutelage, and became a fair mark for ecclesiastical hostility. Among the principal events of Innocent's reign must be reckoned the founda tion of the two orders, Franciscan and Dominican. A second great event was the fourth crusade, undertaken in 1198, which established the naval and commercial supremacy of the Italians in the Mediterranean. The Venetians, who contracted for the transport of the crusaders, and whose blind doge Dandolo was first to land in Constantinople received "one quarter and a half" of the Greek empire for their spoils. The Venetian ascendancy :n the Levant dates from this epoch; for though the republic had no power to occupy all the domains ceded to it, Candia was taken, together with several small islands and stations on the mainland. The formation of a Latin empire in the East increased the pope's prestige ; while at home it was his policy to organize Countess Matilda's heritage by the formation of Guelph leagues, over which he presided. From the Tuscan league Pisa, consistently Ghibel line, stood aloof. Rome itself again at this epoch established a republic, with which Innocent would not or could not interfere. Meanwhile the Guelph and Ghibelline factions were beginning to divide Italy into minute parcels. Not only did commune range itself against commune under the two rival flags, but party rose up against party within the city walls. The introduction of the factions into Florence in 1215, owing to a private quarrel between the Buondelmonti, Amidei and Donati, is a celebrated instance of what was happening in every city.
After the death of Otto IV., Honorius III., Innocent's succes sor, crowned Frederick emperor in Rome (122o). In his single person he combined the prestige of empire with the crowns of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Germany and Burgundy; and in 1225, by marriage with Yolande de Brienne, he added that of Jerusalem. There was no prince greater or more formidable in the habitable globe. Italy seemed to lie prostrate before the emperor. In 1227, Frederick, who had promised to lead a crusade, was excommuni cated by Gregory IX. because he was obliged by illness to defer his undertaking. The Guelph towns of Lombardy again raised their levies. Frederick enlisted his Saracen troops at Nocera and Lucera, and appointed the terrible Ezzelino da Romano his vicar in the Marches of Treviso, to quell their insurrection. Having established Ezzelino in Verona, Vicenza and Padua, he defeated the Milanese and their allies at Cortenuova in 1237. Gregory IX., fearing lest the Guelph party would be ruined by this check, made alliance with Venice and Genoa, fulminated a new excommunica tion against Frederick, and convoked a council at Rome to ratify his ban in 1241. The Genoese undertook to bring the French bishops to this council. Their fleet was attacked at Meloria by the Pisans, and utterly defeated. The French prelates went in silver chains to prison in the Ghibelline capital of Tuscany. In 1243 a new pope, Innocent IV. was elected, who prosecuted the war with still bitterer spirit. Forced to fly to France, he there, at Lyons, in 1245, convened a council, which enforced his condemna tion of the emperor. The mendicant monks stirred up the populace to acts of fanatical enmity. To plot against him, to attempt his life by poison or the sword, was accounted virtuous. The crimes of his vicar Ezzelino increased the horror with which he was re garded. Parma revolted against him ; the only gleam of success which shone on his ill-fortune was the revolution which placed Florence in the hands of the Ghibellines in 5248. Next year Bologna defeated his troops and took his son Enzo prisoner at Fossalta. Hunted to the ground and broken-hearted, Frederick expired at the end of 125o in his Apulian castle of Fiorentino. By birth and breeding an Italian, highly gifted and widely cultivated, liberal in his opinions, a patron of literature, a founder of univer sities, he anticipated the spirit of the Renaissance. At his court Italian started into being as a language. His Jaws were wise. He was capable of giving to Italy a large and noble culture. But the commanding greatness of his position proved his ruin. Emperor and king of Sicily, he was the natural enemy of popes, who could not tolerate so overwhelming a rival.